The Jerilderie Raid

Last week we spent a bit of time in the small NSW town of Jerilderie, land of the Jeithi people.

Apart from holding the dubious honour of being home to truely the worst Chinese eatery in the country (that'll teach us for breaking our own rule about eating Chinese in country towns), Jerilderie is also the only NSW town to have been visited by Ned Kelly and his gang. That's either another dubious honour or a claim to fame, depending on your perspective.

Ned and the gang (his brother Dan, Steven Hart and Joe Byrne) famously conducted the "Jerilderie Raid" between the 6th and 10th of February 1879. Ned's motivation for going to Jerilderie was to have the Jerilderie & Urana Gazette publish a letter explaining his version of the events leading up to the shootout at Stringybark Creek in which two police constables were shot and killed. But bushrangers will be bushrangers and they couldn't resist having a bit of fun while they were in town to deliver the letter.

On the evening of Saturday 6 Feb the gang called into the Woolshed Inn, about 4km out of town, where they had a meal and a few drinks (no doubt better fare than that offered up by the Chinese restaurant). From there they rode to the Jerilderie police barracks, capturing Senior Constable Devine and Trooper Richards, locking them in their own cell and stealing their uniforms.

The next day, all four members of the gang dressed in police uniforms and masqueraded as reinforcements being sent to join other police patrolling the NSW/Victoria border trying to prevent the Kelly gang from entering NSW. While in uniform, Joe Byrne and Steven Hart also called into the blacksmith to have their horses re-shod, charging it to the NSW police account.

Unfortunately for Ned, he couldn't find the editor of the Gazette, Samuel Gill, and tried to convince Mrs Gill to take the letter to give to her husband and have it published. But she refused and instead, Ned gave it to Edwin Levin, a teller at the Bank of NSW, who promised to pass it on to Gill. But for reasons unknown, Levin kept what's now known as the "Jerilderie Letter" in his possession and it wasn't discovered until nearly 100 years later. Perhaps Levin's reason for keeping the letter had something to do with the Kelly gang robbing the bank of over £2000 when it opened on the Monday morning. Quite an eventful long weekend for the Kelly gang.

Jerilderie has lovingly preserved its "Kelly locations" and there's a well laid out walking trail that follows the Kelly gang's raid on the town. Well worth a visit if you're in these parts.